DMV happy hours
Most happy hours in this town punch out at 7 on Friday and sleep until Monday. The eleven spots below keep the window open on Saturday and Sunday, and a few run it harder then: a ten-hour Sunday downtown, a sushi list that comes back at 11 at night, seven weekend hours at a Wheaton bar. Boozy tracks happy hour schedules across the DMV. Strike everything that dies on Friday and the map goes almost dark. Every window and price here comes from the spot's own menu, checked this week.
The sushi counter inside this 14th Street giant works a double on weekends: rolls drop five dollars at 2 in the afternoon, then again at 11 on Saturday night and 10 on Sunday. The spicy tuna lands at $8.99. We would take the late seat, after everything else has closed.
New Orleans cooking a few blocks above McPherson Square, with a Sunday policy that borders on reckless: ten straight hours of happy hour. Deviled eggs run $4, three local oysters $8, and the classic cocktails, the Negroni, the Pimm's Cup, the daiquiri, hold at $11. We would build the whole Sunday around it.
The bar room does the Turkish spread the same way the dining room does, at a fraction of the bill. House wines and Efes pilsner pour at $4.99, and the mezze, hummus, muhammara, ezme, run $5.95 a dish. We would order three mezze and call it dinner.
A silent-film bar on 9th Street where the drinks list goes half price, and the weekend gets no exemption. Duckpin pale ale lands at $3.50, and the house cocktails, named for Chaplin pictures, drop to seven dollars. We would come on Sunday at 4, when the room is at its quietest.
Smoke rises off the table grills here from late morning, and the bar and patio keep happy hour pricing going into the evening. Plates start at $4.45 and climb to a $9.95 filet mignon. We would claim a grill at noon on a Saturday and pace ourselves.
The Clarendon flagship treats Saturday like any other workday: the same four-hour window, the same list. Sliders at five dollars, ten-inch pies at ten, spritzes at eight. We would split a white pie at the front windows and watch Wilson Boulevard go by.
A Queen Street parlor with a literary streak, down to martinis named for Hemingway and the Scriblerus Club. At the bar, house wine and drafts hold at six dollars and the fried chicken shawarma bites at eight. We would take the corner seat with the espresso martini and a paperback we brought ourselves.
Out where the DMV thins into horse country, this King Street raw bar shucks house oysters at $1.75 in threes, weekend included. The cocktails, the house wines, and most of the food line sit flat at eight dollars. We would drive out for the oysters and stay for the froze.
A Cajun boil house on Veirs Mill where the weekend bar shift runs seven hours and the prices read like a misprint. Wings are $1.25, oysters a dollar fifty, a 16-ounce draft three dollars. We would bring four people and order in waves.
A chophouse bar in downtown Silver Spring with the nerve to call its happy hour all-night and mean it. Oysters run a dollar in multiples of six, Old Bay fries five, martinis and manhattans ten. We would settle in at 9 on a Saturday night, when every other happy hour in the county is long over.
Hora loca is the house term at this Peruvian gastrobar on Woodmont Avenue, and the weekend gets the full version. Ceviche tradicional runs five dollars, wines by the glass start at $5.50, and the specialty cocktails hold at ten. We would start with the ceviche and let the pisco take it from there.
